Back when actor John Ratzenberger was a youngster, playtime was a hands-on experience. Barring a blizzard or other weather catastrophe, he and his friends would be outside most days, playing ball or riding their bikes. Other days, he would tinker.

The city of Lincoln, Neb., is fast outgrowing its 880 miles of sanitary sewers. To remedy this situation, the Lincoln Wastewater System (LWWS) is upgrading its wastewater collection system. That's a lot of pipe.

When the city of Milwaukee began using a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) to manage its 50 buildings, operations and maintenance director Joe Jacobsen didn't know how hard it would be to convince other managers of the true measure of his department's performance.

Many cities use geographic information systems (GIS) combined with asset management software to manage infrastructure, but buildings often get short shrift. But now forward-thinking facility managers, are also using technology to bring their role out of the basement and into the modern world.

Our annual list of people, places, and events that made their mark on infrastructure. From do-gooders to good-for-nothings here are the 50 Trendsetters that shaped, shocked, or otherwise rocked our world over the past year.

It was only 40 years old when it collapsed Aug. 1, but the I-35W Mississippi River Bridge in Minnesota had been deemed “structurally deficient” since 1997. Experts speculate the steel arch truss bridge collapsed because of weather extremes, vulnerable design, and/or metal fatigue. Following the...

The EPA has altered the compost and fertilizer listings in the landscaping category. The measure stands to encourage local public works departments to get past previous concerns about the environmental friendliness of the practice, thereby increasing local landscaping options and, in some instances...

In 2005, the 60 largest U.S. cities spent a record $4.3 billion in maintaining and growing their parks systems. However, green-space advocates maintain more funding is needed to improve urban quality of life.